Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-08-11
THE NEW SOUTH.


Truthful Pictures EashiOned sat OF
Recent Eyents-the Power OF JefrI
Davis.
st. Paul Pioneer Press: The country
is beginning to learn something more OF
the "new SOUTH" of whose existence it
has heard from hundreds OF tongues and
pens; from the correspondent OF thel
Atlantic Monthly who coined the term,
down to Mr.. Grady, whose elegant
periods assured us that it has very real
and present Significance. There is
scarcely man of eminenoe in the south,
not single democrat OF any standing in
the north, who is not anxious to convey
to the public an impression of the essen
tlal truth OF such speeches as that OF
Mir. Grady at the New England dinner,
and that OF Mr.. Randolph Tucker at the
banquet OF the alumni OF Yale; claiming
that, as far as the south ia concerned, the
dead past must bury its dead, bygones
shall be bygones, end the only interest
OF the people is in loyal adhesion to the
principles and the system that have been
establiehed by the result of the
war of the rebellion. We speak
honestly when We say that the
people OF the north. as whole, are
Just as anxious to believe these
Representations ss those who make them
are to have them believed. Outside of
o few consoienceless politicians, who
would willingly revive every sectional
issue and rend the country anew il
necessary for the sake OF partisan ad-
vantage, there are none to whom this
| picture of the "ne9 south has not ap-
| peared with alluring hope. The people,
| as whole, are weary of sectioDalism,
And never, anywhere. in any audience.
are the words of loyalty which south.
| eraer utters any more hearty than the
| applause with which they are received.
The new south" is vision beautiful to
many. But is it anything more than
| vision?
Two events OF recent occurrence will
help ns TO an answer. The latest and
1 not the lelst significant 10 the election
in Texas. There can hardly be strong
er proof that the old south fingers be-
side and dominates the new than
statement of the Influences by which
this election Was determined. Although
several amendments to the constitution
were to be submitted to popular vote,
that relating to prohibition absorbed the
whole of public interest. For weeks
before the decisive day the contest was
30 close that no one could tell which way
it would turn. The hearty support
given to the prohibition party by Mr..
Reagan, easily the most popular leader
in the state, made 1T little more
/ probable that this side would win. But
at the last moment, the opposition
played its highest trump. This was
nothing more than the publication OF a
letter which Jefferson Davis had been
solicited te write. The subject matter
Of that letter is absolutely pueriie. Davis
advised the people to vote against pro.
Inhibition in orde. to yIndicate state Rights.
Now how on earth the prohibition OF
manufacture and sale OF intoxioants by
state authority can be an encroaohment
on that authority nobody has explained.
Il made no difference. 1t was not the
logic, but the name that counted 5ena-
tor Reagan, in letter deprecating the
position OF MIR. Davis, virtually admitted
that the day WAS lost. And 30 this maud
lin utterance, without plth or point
concerned, written by a man who
is not even q citizen of the United
States, turned the tide Overwhelmingly
like 100000 majority, and 1t was the
Davis letter that did it. Is it the snew
. south which thus obediently follows
: the lightest whim of the leader OF the
lost csuse2
We have been told agsin that all thai
the south asked was that the nortt
8 should let ii settle the race question fol
: itself in its own way. This was the pief
: OF Mr. Grady himself in answer to one
OF Mr.. Cables Century articles. That il
. the position of every southerner of In
4 hnence. You csnnoS understand
] they say, show peculiarly delicate thil
h question is to US. II is impossible to ar
range it by law. Let us alone, to work i
out in cnr own way, and we promise 70,
that the solution shall be more salts
: factory to the nation than any othe
. lcould be-" Well, the petition has beel
/. granted. Politically and socially tn
: freedman has been turned owe
: to the .new SOUTH" And what hal
/. the new south" done with him
The record of election fraud
will answer for the political side. Th
answer from the social side is goo,
It deal more startling. The one thing O
Il which the south was most confident wa
!, that ID would not do to legislate in tn
: premises at ell. Not by laws, but b.
social evolution was the thing to be az
ls complished. And now 1t is the ene'
II south"whlch begins the law-making bus
AZ ness, with the most infsmous piece {
legislation known in this country zinc
y the days OF the fugitive slave law. BE
b cause certain professors in Atlanta un
1t versity dared to admit their own chill
~ dren TO classes which they themselv,
q taught, the lower house of the iesisle
~ ture Of Georgia. the state OF Mr.. Grady
" the leader OF the "new south" the en-
of bodiment OF sll the new ideas and q
" the progress that has made its way ini
: that section, has just passed with bI
= two dissenting votes, and those the yot
'g OF the two negro members, Q law provi
at ing that any teacher who gives il
struction to classes composed OF bo
white and coiored children, and si
trustee who permits the children OF II
two races to associate in school ov
e. which he has charge shall be punish
Of by sentence to the chain gang, fke nc